


just ask him (obviously)

by benfic



Category: Legally Blonde - Hach/O'Keefe/Benjamin
Genre: F/M, Love Confessions, that's it that's the fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-22
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-09-24 10:36:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17098991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/benfic/pseuds/benfic
Summary: Elle takes Emmett on a walk and fails to just ask him. Does she even have to, though? Things seem pretty obvious.(Yet another one of those post-trial codas, inspired by literally everyone else's and my own slow-burn-infused brain.)





	just ask him (obviously)

**Author's Note:**

> i edited this literally upwards of four times so it better be good lmao. i haven't slept since 1992

She doesn’t have to look for him long. He’s still waiting outside the courthouse, decently far from the cameras and reporters mobbing the rest of the crew. He looks bored, but-- he’s waiting. Leaning up against the wall, watching the others from a distance. His normal hairstyle is starting to poke out from under all that gel, thank God.

 

“Hey.”

 

He looks up at her, instantly brightening.

 

“Hey.”

 

“You want to...” she sort of gestures with her shoulder. Then her hand. She’s feeling very much the dumb blonde, all of a sudden, now that the whole Warner thing is over. Now that she’s looking at Emmett.

 

 _Did you actually think I was going to let you get away?_ And when he reassured her, later. How come she hadn’t noticed how he always does that? How she always _needs_ it? And then when he hugged her-- what did he get so darn _close_ for?

 

Has she been missing something, this whole time?

 

 _Just talk to him,_ she thinks. _Just ask him--_

 

“Yeah, okay,” he says, and he grabs his bag. “Where to?”

 

She shrugs.

 

“Just to walk around.” She fixes her hair, looking for something to say. “I guess I have to get back to campus eventually.”

 

Emmett nods, and they walk to her car; she’s the chosen chauffeur, at least as long as her parents keep paying for car maintenance and Emmett continues to not know how to drive. The drive is mostly silent, save a couple of routine comments from Emmett on how _pink_ and _lavish_ her ride is. Elle laughs and tries to both think and drive at the same time.

 

She parks purposefully far from her dorm; she needs time for this. It’s already getting dark, or at least dark- _ish,_ and all the little lampposts light their way as they walk. Their hands brush, and she tries to pretend she doesn’t notice. Emmett glances at her from the side, all sneaky-cute. She pretends not to notice that either.

 

So what was he saying? That he needs her, too? What was he trying to do? Was he trying to kiss her?

 

_(Ask him. Ask him. Ask him.)_

 

“Congratulations,” he says, and she blinks. Oh, right.

 

“Well, it was partially thanks to you,” she says, and he shakes his head. “I mean, you did a good job, um, distracting Nikos.”

 

“I have you to thank for that idea,” Emmett says, and Elle grins, bumping shoulders with him. “And you have to admit that the end...” He shrugs. “That was all you. We needed you on that team, Elle.”

 

“Thank you.” She looks at her shoes, for lack of someplace safer, and considers.

 

_(Ask him. Ask him.)_

 

Emmett looks behind them, and Elle follows his gaze, but he just shakes his head.

 

“Sorry,” he says, taking her arm. He cracks a small smile. “I guess I’ve just gotten used to being interrupted whenever I’m alone with you.” He looks ahead again. “Say, what was he trying to tell you, anyway?”

 

It takes Elle a moment to realize he means Warner, and then that he means Warner the second time, too, mostly because she can’t figure out if him taking her arm was a friend thing like they always do, or a romantic thing... like they always do, anyway.

 

“Um,” she says. “Well, he asked me to marry him.” She laughs softly; Emmett stops walking. “Again.” She looks at Emmett’s face and throws her hands in the air; “Well, I said no! Obviously.”

 

“Obviously,” Emmett repeats, staring at her. Somewhere in the moment, he’s let go of her arm. She nods. “I mean--” he shuffles a little uncomfortably, then laughs. “Are you going to make a habit out of telling me life-changing things in the middle of otherwise normal conversations?”

 

“Well, it didn’t seem so life-changing,” Elle says, kicking a small leaf aside. They go back to walking side-by-side. She stumbles slightly on her heels, and Emmett catches her arm. “I mean, I know I _used_ to want it, but... God, it was the same ring he used to ask Vivienne, too.”

 

“Oh.” Emmett doesn’t let go of her arm this time. “Yeah, that’s kind of weird.”

 

“It’s _extremely_ tacky,” Elle says, leaning a little closer to Emmett. “Hey, that’s that bench you walked me home from after the party.”

 

“The what?” Emmett asks, turning to look. Elle almost falls again, and Emmett stops again, holding onto her. “Oops. Sorry.” Now he has a hand on her shoulder, too. And she doesn’t exactly want him to move it.

 

_(Ask him!)_

 

“Emmett,” she says, turning back to him. He doesn’t move his hands. _Come on, Elle. Be brave._ “You said-- you said you wouldn’t let me get away.”

 

Emmett looks at her.

 

“Well-- well, what did that _mean_ _?”_ she asks. Her breath is cloudy in the air.

 

Emmett shrugs.

 

“Well, I-- I want you here. I mean, you made it sound like...” He trails off, looking away. Back to that bench. It’s getting kind of cold, now that they’re not moving.

 

“Like what?”

 

“Like there was no reason to stay,” Emmett says, looking her in the eyes now. “And that’s not true. You won that trial; we couldn’t have done it without you. You belong here.”

 

He pauses a moment, then shoves his hands into his pockets. Elle feels very cold where he was touching her.

 

“Obviously,” Emmett adds, and Elle cracks a smile. She looks back to the bench, kind of wishing the girls of Delta Nu were here. She could really use some eloquence help right now; she doesn’t have a lot of modes between ‘casual conversation’ and ‘lawyerly interrogation’. Maybe ‘snappy comebacks’, but that one’s rare.

 

If she was really smooth, she’d just kiss him right now and have done with it.

 

But that might end poorly, and she doesn’t want to take any chances right now.

 

God, why can’t she just leave things the way they are? Were. Are?

 

“You look cold,” Emmett says, and Elle shrugs. Cold is the _least_ of her problems right now. Emmett touches a hand to her face, and she stiffens. “You feel cold, too. Oh, wait--”

 

“Let’s go to my place,” she says, taking a step back. He blinks. “I mean, it’ll be warm. And nobody can interrupt you. Except maybe Bruiser, but I left him with Paulette, and she’s giving him the trim of his life, so--”

 

“Okay,” Emmett says, taking Elle’s hand. She looks away for a moment, then squeezes his. And then grabs his arm with her other hand, because wow, he’s warm. And it is kinda freezing out right now.

 

“You gave me your coat,” she says, holding onto him. “After the party.”

 

“Well, you looked cold then, too,” Emmett says, looking resolutely ahead.

 

“I still have that costume,” Elle says, glancing up at him.

 

“Oh,” Emmett says, and the amount of emotion in his voice could literally mean anything. She’s not going to get any information doing this, is she?

 

She has to detach from him to deal with the door, and nearly fumbles her key on the way in. He raises an eyebrow, but doesn’t say anything.

 

“Um,” she says. She clears off her bed, and Emmett takes a seat on the desk. _On_ the desk, too, even though there’s a perfectly good chair right there. And it feels kind of lonely being all the way over here after he was _just_ holding her hand.

 

“Um?” Emmett says. He links his hands together, and Elle tries not to stare pointedly at them. _My hand is literally right here! You need a hand to hold? Here’s my hand, here’s my--_

 

She’s running out of subtext.

 

_Just ask him!_

 

“After the trial,” she begins.

 

Emmett nods.

 

“After the trial,” she repeats, “I feel like...”

 

Oh, God, this is so stupid. She is not seriously walking him through the fact that he _almost_ kissed her. He was totally going to kiss her. She should not need any help on this.

 

“Elle, the suspense is killing me,” Emmett says. Elle stares at him.

 

“I mean, you got pretty close,” she says. She’s not sure how to be more obvious about this. _You literally almost kissed me and I kind of really want you to now and I’m pretty sure that’s not even the first time that that’s happened but you just won’t admit it for some reason? Butthead?_

 

“Well, I was hugging you,” Emmett agrees. He pauses, de-linking his hands, and looks up at her worriedly. “Did you not want me to?”

 

“Emmett Forest, you are so dumb sometimes I can’t even believe I’m in love with you.”

 

Oh my God.

 

“You’re what?” Emmett croaks.

 

(Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God.)

 

“In,” Elle says. It’s a good thing she’s sitting. “Love with you.”

 

“Oh,” Emmett says. He does that little nervous half-laugh he always does when he doesn’t know what to say, and then he looks down at his shoes, grinning like an idiot. It’s very quiet.

 

Elle thinks her heart is doing some pretty wild things right now.

 

Also, she’s wondering if she should’ve gone for lawyerly interrogation instead.

 

“Well?” she squeaks. Emmett looks at her. He seems reasonably pink. “I mean, what about you?”

 

 _“Me?_ Oh, I--” Emmett laughs, “Elle, I’ve been in love with you since you opened your textbook; are you kidding?” He covers his face with one hand, then chuckles softly and shrugs, crossing his arms. “Was it not obvious?”

 

 _“No,”_ Elle manages, looking at her feet; it was _obvious?_ But it was, wasn’t it? And all this time she was running after Warner, and here was Emmett helping her study and holding her hand and looking at her like-- well. Almost like she was looking at Warner, she supposes. But still different. “For that long? How did you _survive?”_

 

“Mostly, I made flash cards,” Emmett says, and that’s so dumb and stupid and _Emmett_ that she has to rush over and hug him.

 

He’s so warm.

 

He smells like honey and hair gel.

 

Speaking of which-- she musses his hair slightly.

 

“You _do_ look kind of like Warner like that,” she says. “Ew.”

 

“Gee, thank you,” Emmett says, taking her hand in both of his. Elle shakes her head.

 

“But why didn’t you _tell_ me?” she asks, looking down at their linked hands. At least her nails look good; that’s the only thing she feels like she knows for sure right now.

 

“You seemed pretty interested in your own guy,” Emmett says, and she looks up at him, brows pulling together. “And then we had the trial to focus on, and then Callahan was hitting on you, and I didn’t want to be just another guy who failed you.”

 

“You wouldn’t--”

 

“And we kept getting interrupted, and it was never the right time, and I kept telling myself to be a man and just do it, but I _couldn’t_ ,” he says, all in a rush, holding her hand. He disattaches one of his own to touch her face. “No offense, Elle,” he says, sounding remarkably nervous for someone who’s currently keeping Elle hostage because _she can’t move, can she, she doesn’t know what she would do if he moved away now,_ “but you scare the _crap_ out of me.”

 

“Oh,” Elle says, still processing that he-- well, all of that. All of that and _he was trying to kiss her._ If there has ever been a time to scream _oh my God,_ it is now. Except she doesn’t feel like she can say anything at all. Her legs are still kinda shaking. She hopes she doesn’t collapse.

 

“I just didn’t think I was the type of guy you would have liked,” Emmett says, looking up at her. She realizes she’s holding his hand to her face, and also that he’s looking at her. Really looking at her, and hasn’t she seen that look before? Hasn’t he been the only one to ever give her that look?

 

“To be fair,” she says, feeling kind of floaty and odd, “I didn’t think so, either.”

 

“Yeah, I know,” Emmett says, pulling her closer. Their foreheads touch; Elle drops Emmett’s hand and hugs him again. She is feeling _huggy_ tonight. “It’s been some kind of day, huh?”

 

“Yeah,” she breathes. He’s so close she worries he can hear her heart beating. It feels pretty out of control in there right now.

 

“I mean, I thought I lost you, you came back, we won the trial, Warned proposed to you, you took me here, and now...”

 

“And now?” Elle asks, moving away again to study his face.

 

“And now,” he says, “I’m realizing I’m still too scared to kiss you.”

 

 _“You?”_ Elle tosses her hair frustratedly, _“you’re_ too scared to kiss _me?”_

 

“Now it sounds like you’re making fun of me,” Emmett says; “though that could also be an invitation,” he amends.

 

“Emmett, you stupid, cowardly, no-good butthead,” Elle says.

 

“That I can understand,” Emmett agrees, and he kisses her. Without thinking about it, she finds one of her hands in his hair and the other just under his jacket, where his shirt is tucked in. She should definitely not be focusing on it, but the outfit is kind of a huge turn-on.

 

(As is Emmett, generally speaking.)

 

(God, she’s been so _dumb.)_

 

“What are you thinking about?” he asks, pulling back. Elle has to take a moment to remember whether she was thinking at all to begin with.

 

“That I could’ve had _that_ this whole time,” she says, tilting her head. Emmett grins sheepishly and kisses her again, and again.

 

“To be honest,” he says, in-between kisses, “I’m still kind of scared this is going to turn out to be some kind of mistake.”

 

She steps away for a moment, holding onto his shoulder.

 

“Now, what’s _that_ supposed to mean?”

 

“That you’re not actually here and I’m involved in some kind of über-pink Red Bull-infused hallucination,” he says, laughing again. “I’m not even sure I’m awake right now.”

 

Elle pinches him before he can say anything else.

 

“Ow,” he says. “Okay. I wasn’t being that literal, but that helped. Why are you looking at me like that?”

 

He glances up at Elle from under his eyelashes; his mouth is in a kind of almost-open question shape. She’s ruined his hair, and his tie is long gone; one corner of his shirt is coming untucked.

 

“Because I _like_ you,” she says. “I like you a lot. Is that so hard to believe? You’re hot, okay? You’re cute, I like you, I wouldn’t want anyone here right now other than you. What more do you want from me?”

 

“Honestly, I wouldn’t mind seeing the bunny costume again,” Emmett says, and Elle snickers before coming back to stand between his legs. She holds his hand, too, for good measure.

 

“Kiss me again and you just might,” Elle says, as her hand moves stealthily from his arm to his shoulder, all the way up to his neck.

 

“Wow,” Emmett says, looking at her, and “I guess you never can tell,” before Elle kisses him, mostly just to shut him up.  


**Author's Note:**

> FULL LIST OF REFERENCES 
> 
> “I mean, you did a good job, um, distracting Nikos.” -- people refuse to acknowledge this but emmett lifted up his suit jacket to show nikos his ass and that's the only reason nikos fucked up. you can literally see this in every boot don't @ me i know i'm right and also wow he literally Did get inspired by elle's bend and snap? man heard 'gay' and knew what he had to do
> 
> "You belong here." -- _but perhaps if i'd made it more clear / that you belong right here / you wouldn't have to go / 'cause you'd know that i'm so much in love_ (legally blonde)
> 
> God, why can’t she just leave things the way they are? Were. Are? -- _what does she want? / not really sure / why can't we leave things the way that they were?_ (take it like a man)
> 
> You need a hand to hold? Here’s my hand, here’s my-- -- _so baby give me your hand (here's my hand, here's my hand) i've got some dreams to make true..._ (serious)
> 
> [every mention of the word 'butthead' in this fic] -- "exactly, you... butthead..." "no one's called me butthead since the third grade." "maybe not to your face!" (between whipped into shape and take it like a man)
> 
> And all this time she was running after Warner, and here was Emmett helping her study and holding her hand... -- _i thought losing your love was a blow i could never withstand / but look how far i have come without anyone holding my hand_ (find my way [finale]) i love this line in the show but also like . emmett very much did help her study like those were his holidays too not just hers > _ > so. shoutout to my mans for physically and metaphorically holding elle's hand but also not babying her so the line is still valid in what it represents
> 
> "...and I didn’t want to be just another guy who failed you.” -- _i grew up in the roxbury slums / with my mom and a series of bums / guys who showed me all the ways a man can fail_ (chip on my shoulder)
> 
> "I kept telling myself to be a man and just do it..." -- _so take it like (so take it like a man!) a man!_ are we just not gonna acknowledge that emmett legitimately tried to smooch elle in that scene and somehow managed to Miss
> 
> [every single 'oh my god'] -- ohmigod you guys ... i'm not gonna quote it
> 
> “I just didn’t think I was the type of guy you would have liked." -- _think of the guy you want most to be (not quite the guy i'd've chose to be / but when she's standing so close to me / i think i like her plan!)_ (take it like a man) (also hard reference to the fact that he goes "wow... i look like warner" because the type of guy he wants to be iS THE GUY THAT ELLE LIKES aNd Then ! when he's like "but it's just me" she's like "that's the best part :>" and it's like. she really truly does love him for who he is can i get a tissue in this chilis tonight)
> 
> “I’m still kind of scared this is going to turn out to be some kind of mistake...” -- _is this a mistake? / am i even awake? / pinch me now to make sure-- / ow!_ (so much better) also we need to talk about emmett's relationship to red bull
> 
> "You’re hot, okay?" -- _you look hot! is he not hot~?_ (take it like a man) 
> 
> “I guess you never can tell." -- _guess you never can tell... / with little miss woods-comma-elle!_ (chip on my shoulder) 
> 
> Elle kisses him, mostly just to shut him up. -- throwback to that time warner was being an asshole in serious so elle had to tell him to shut up because he wouldn't stop being an idiot. this is like that except good this time . in fact you could almost say it's ... So Much Better 
> 
> anyway if you made it through all this THANKS! i know it was long and my commentary was long and the time since anyone has given a shit about this fandom is (unfortunately) long, but i have ... a lot of ideas so get ready for the fuckin fanfic Revival am i right. i'm right thanks
> 
> (please leave a comment on your way out)


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